Career Mode

If you want to leave your mark in this city, you'll have to race like you've never raced before, and with the help of the buxom Rachel Teller, you can do just that. Here's a rundown of race modes that you'll find in Career Mode, as well as tips on how to win.

Street X This is one of the new race modes in the game, and it's by far the most challenging. Up to four competitors will race in a closed circuit featuring very narrow straights and sharp turns. Cars with superb handling will be the ones that win here. There are no bonuses at all, and you also have no Nitrous in this event. The start of the race is the most essential time. If you can manage to take the lead in the beginning of the race, you'll do just fine, so long as you can handle the many sharp turns. Try not to powerslide during this event, as that will eat into your time. Instead, slow down and try to take your turns carefully.

Drift The popular event from the first Underground game is back, but with a little twist. As in the first game, you'll compete with up to four other competitors to see who can rack up the most points while drifting around the course. The faster and harder your drift is, the more points you rack up. You want to get a good, long drift in during the races, but be sure not to enter the turns too slow. Points are earned by drifting, but are lost if you hit a wall or guard rail on the course. During later races, it's best i

The little twist in Drift is that you also have downhill competitions to worry about. Downhill Drift races require you to beat a pre-determined score, instead of competing with other cars in the same race. On top of that, the downhill variations feature traffic that crosses your path. Traffic is the same as the walls, so if you hit them while drifting, you'll lose all of your points that you've accumulated during a drift. There are certain areas in downhill drift races that are prime spots to score some points. They are usually wide-open areas and instead of asphalt roads, the road will turn into gravel or brick. Keep an eye out for these areas and rack up some massive points!

Drag Another fun event from Underground returns, although it hasn't changed as much as the Drift competitions have. This is one of our favourite courses, because it's all about timing and reflexes. The objective here is to outrace your opponents to the finish line. Sounds simple, right? Too bad it's not. Drag races require you to change gears precisely. Even though you may have chosen Automatic Transmission for your car during Career Mode, you'll still have to switch gears here.

Pay close attention to the icons on the screen when you're racing. Once you're racing, the icon in the top-middle of the screen will indicate when you need to shift gears. When the icon is blue, it's a little too early to shift. Once it turns green, immediately shift gears for a perfect shift. If you're too late and the icon turns red, then you'll get an Overrev, which means you'll lose some speed in the race.

One thing to worry about is the temperature of your car, especially during later races. If you spend too much time in OverRev, you'll run the chance of your engine blowing out. Similarly, if you are near the end of a race, and you can't shift gears up, be very careful about how much Nitrous you're using, because it dramatically increases the temperature of your car.

Sprint & Circuit These two race modes haven't changed at all in Underground 2. Sprint consists of a quick race across the city to a finish line, while Circuit is a race around a course set in the city. Both feature massive amounts of traffic, and can be quite vicious if you're not careful. Follow the arrow icons that litter the course to get through them. There are also quite a lot of shortcuts to follow too.

Underground Racing League (U.R.L) The URL races are the bread and butter of Underground 2. They are similar to Circuit races, except the URL races are set on formal courses that you might find in Formula 1 or KART races. Other than that, they're pretty similar. These races open up the next stage of Career Mode, so be sure to rack up a lot of wins and reputation points before moving on.

OutRun OutRun races are for games who love to freestyle. It works like this: Find another competitor via your GPS system and once you get near, tap the Up button to enter an Outrun race. You now have to overtake the other car, and then put 300 meters between you and him to be declared the winner. If he can do the same, then you'll lose. Outrun opponents are indicated by orange triangles on your GPS, so seek them out as much as you can. By defeating a certain amount of opponents in Outrun, you'll unlock a unique visual part for your car!

Visuals One of the most appealing features about the Need for Speed Underground series is the ability to customize your ride to your hearts content. Customizing your ride in Underground 2 is a little different from the first game. You'll have to seek out car shops that offer certain product, and then outfit your car. These parts can be obtained in various shops along the city, each one of them represented by a specific color on your map. By collecting Info SMS messages, some of them inform you about the positions of these hidden shops. In Career Mode it's vital that you constantly trick out your ride in order to get more magazine and DVD cover offers, as well as being able to compete in more races. After completing races, you'll be informed of any new parts that have arrived in the performance or body shops. Unless you have an urgent race to get to (magazine cover or dvd cover offer), take the time to seek out a shop to tune your car. The following is a list of all of the performance upgrades you can make to your car, and what it actually improves when you apply them.